


Morning After

by ami_ven



Series: When Called [2]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Stargate, Community: mcsheplets, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 03:04:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3103184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We went to bed at six AM.  The night was pretty much over already at that point.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning After

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #192 "the other side of the deadline VIII" (#164 "night")

John woke slowly, instead of all at once, to a dull throb in his skull and an unfamiliar bedroom. He sat up, vaguely wondering how he’d gotten there, and realized he was dressed, wearing his own boxers, a t-shirt that said _I’m with genius_ and what felt like only one sock. The room was mostly dark, but he could make out the cluttered dresser and prints from the Hubble on the walls.

There was a snuffling noise from beside him, and John looked down to find Rodney sprawled in the other side of the large bed, rumpled and snoring softly.

John had fallen asleep on Rodney’s couch, then shaken awake every hour, until the sun began to rise. At that point, the scientist had decided he probably didn’t have a head injury and towed him upstairs to his bedroom. John hadn’t questioned it, then, had just caught the t-shirt Rodney threw him and climbed into bed. But now that he thought about it, a house this size should have had a guest room, maybe several of them, so there wasn’t really any need to share.

There wasn’t really any need for Rodney to have brought him here at all, actually. When he’d called, John had expected Rodney to send a car for him, at the very most, if he’d answered his phone at all, not to come to the police station to pick him up in person, not to demand that John tell him the date and the President’s name at every hourly concussion check, not to climb into the other side of the huge, ridiculously soft bed beside him and start snoring.

John knew he shouldn’t stay. Rodney was his boss, the CEO of a multinational corporation, he didn’t need the complication of waking up with a nearly-disgraced Air Force major in his bed. 

But John didn’t move, watching Rodney sleep for a long moment.

He’d turned down three transfers in the last three years, to higher-profile, career-advancing positions, to stay on as the liaison to McKay Industries, and he didn’t regret a single one of them. His superiors had meant it to be a punishment— for John or for Rodney, or maybe for them both— but John had never found anywhere he felt more comfortable. He hadn’t trusted anyone as much since his mother had died, not even Nancy, the girl he’d almost married in college, and he had started to hope that Rodney felt the same.

So, for once, John decided to be a little selfish. He lay back down in bed, scooting over until his spine just touched Rodney’s shoulder, and closed his eyes.

He woke again to the bedroom door banging open and Rodney’s voice saying, “Oh, you are still alive, Sheppard. You slept so long that I thought you might actually _have_ brain damage and died in the middle of the night.”

“We went to bed at six AM,” John pointed out, smiling. “The night was pretty much over already at that point.”

Rodney waved a dismissive hand. “Semantics. And since you’re not dead, you can come downstairs and make breakfast.”

“ _Make_ breakfast?” John protested, but it was such a perfectly McKay-like thing to have said that he couldn’t help laughing. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Rodney repeated, his expression faltering. “I didn’t really mean— You don’t have to—”

John slid out of bed and moved to curl a hand around Rodney’s elbow. “I’d love to make you breakfast.”

“Oh,” said Rodney.

“And… maybe dinner, too?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Rodney snapped. “We’re going out for dinner.”

John laughed and leaned in to kiss him. “Sounds great.”

THE END


End file.
